Defiance of Gods
by DarkLight80
Summary: Percy Jackson is tired. Tired of being the one who always has to fight and be thrown into danger by the gods. Percy is done with being used and decides to take matters into his own hands.
1. The Hunt

Phoebe Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, chastity, moon, and a host of other titles was inspecting her bow and performing maintenance on it, not that she needed to, she could simply snap her fingers and it would be brand new; however she enjoyed the action. She then methodically moved on to her set of daggers and hunting knives and cleaned them.

Recently, the Hunt had been doing very well and had not lost a member since the last Titan War. Her thoughts strayed to her former Lieutenant Zoë who had sacrificed herself in order to defeat her father, Atlas.

Artemis started becoming teary-eyed but quickly blinked away her tears. She was a goddess, not some sentimental mortal. But some part of her still missed the friendship that the two had shared for over a millenia.

Her thoughts then went to a certain Son of Poseidon who had managed to hold the weight of the sky in order that she could fight off Atlas. Perseus Jackson was an enigma to say the least, he was not like many other men that she was familiar with and that threw her off. He was undoubtedly selfless and clearly cared a lot for his friends. He also isn't that bad looking, Artemis immediately shut down that train of thought.

After inspecting her weapons one last time, Artemis stepped out of the tent and walked towards the forest they had camped near. As she walked through camp, a series of "Milady"s could be heard signifying her position of power and authority amongst the hunt. Walking towards forest Artemis was in her 16-year old form.

Many said that she preferred a 12-year old form but that was not necessarily true. She mostly did that to prevent a lot of attention being directed towards her. Her 16-year old form actually allowed her to move faster due to her increased height but she was also a slightly larger target. She swept her long auburn hair over her shoulder and prepared herself for the coming Hunt.

Artemis stealthily crept through the forest, tracking her prey. She checked using her senses and heard her target just up ahead making quite a lot of noise.

She snuck a little further and she saw her prey, a manticore. It was hunched over and she noticed it appeared to have just gotten out of a fight due to several long gashes on its arms and ichor pouring out.

She carefully loaded an arrow into her bow and aimed it at the manticore. Hold your breath, aim, and fire. Artemis held her breath in order to get a stable line of sight.

As she was going to fire at the manticore, it looked up and spotted her. She froze for a split second and quickly fired the arrow.

The arrow zipped through the air at rapid speeds and hit the manticore in the chest causing it to roar and charge at her.

Artemis pulled out her hunting knives and engaged in fighting it. The manticore received stab wounds but Artemis herself also was hit by its claws causing several scratches and gashes to appear. Artemis was rapidly dodging and quickly blocking the numerous swipes and attempted bites from the beast. She was so focused on blocking the manticore's attacks she didn't notice its tail swing around and hit her in the side.

She was thrown to the side violently and shakily opened her eyes. The manticore stared down at her and grinned. "I guess I get to kill a goddess today!"

Artemis quickly faked panic giving the manticore pause. Artemis quickly threw one of her knives attached to her thigh. The knife flew straight and pierced the monster's heart. The Manticore's eyes widened, "Impossible… " he said, before collapsing into dust.

Artemis smirked and muttered "Fool, you cannot defeat a goddess" before checking herself over, she had a few cuts and some bruises but the battle had left her outfit in tatters. Thinking about her hunters Artemis flashed herself back to camp.

Artemis was immediately greeted by her Lieutenant Thalia who rushed over. "Milady, are you alright?!" Thalia questioned worriedly.

"I am just fine Lieutenant, just some surface wounds" Artemis replied.

"Thank gods, I was afraid you were seriously hurt!" Thalia exclaimed while wiping her forehead.

"Lieutenant it was just a simple manticore nothing you nor I couldn't handle" Artemis explained.

They both were heading towards the main campfire in the center where the rest of the hunters were waiting. When Artemis appeared with ichor and her tattered outfit her hunters all gasped and stared with shocked looks.

Artemis looked confused for a second before realising the cause of their stares, she then snapped her fingers in order to clean herself up. Looking herself over Artemis was satisfied with her appearance.

"All right toda-" Artemis didn't get to finish as she was interrupted by a certain messenger god .

Hermes looked solemn at first but then smirked "Hey Arty wha-" he didn't get to finish as he was pounded in the face by the fist of an angry goddess and flopped onto the ground. "Whats... up?" Hermes finished lamely still recovering from the punch.

"Don't call me ARTY" Artemis hissed through clenched teeth with a furious expression on her face.

Artemis dragged up the god by his shirt, "Now there better be a good reason you came up here or else" she stared him in the eyes threateningly while bringing her fist up again.

Hermes gulped and stood up, taking a deep breath he looked into her eyes and said "You are summoned for a meeting to Olympus, Perseus has attacked Camp Half-Blood"

AN: First chapter is done and has been rewritten. This is my first fanfiction so probably not going to be perfect but that's the joy of writing. Feel free to leave a review and have a nice day!


	2. The Beginning

"G-man I'm sorry but I need to take a break from this, all of this" Percy exclaimed.

Grover and Percy were in the Poseidon Cabin and Grover was watching Percy concerned.

"Percy, please reconsider! This isn't just like some quest we went on, it's dangerous outside the camp, there are monsters like empousa, hydras or eve-" Grover was pacing back and forth when Percy placed a hand on his shoulder and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Grover, it's almost precisely like a quest on the outside, I mean look, when we were on that quest monsters still came after us, just like they will when I leave Camp. Except for one thing, we were sent on that mission because some thousand-year-old mummy looked at me and said do this or go there, it's almost like every aspect of our lives is being controlled, I just need to go and think. Even after Kronos, when we all teamed up together, we lost friends, family even" Percy took a breath.

"I even have early grey hairs!" Percy yelled while Percy pointed to his grey streak from when he held up the sky.

"You know, give them a chance, they are thousands of year old beings who may not pay as much attention as they should but what can we do?" Grover said trying to placate Percy.

"No, I refuse to submit to this way of thinking Grover, I already gave them a chance, I thought maybe this new world would be better than the one I left behind. But you know what I've learned? I've learned that most of the gods go around having children with anyone good looking and then just leave them in the world without checking in on them, citing 'Ancient Laws'. Can you truly say that the gods have tried, like honestly tried!" Percy chuckled mirthlessly.

"Look at me in the eyes and tell me that the gods have cared for each of their children" Percy spoke to Grover here while staring at him.

Grover gulped, "Hey uh, Percy you're starting to scare me here man, I mean, what if the gods heard this?" Grover said looking around fearfully as if the gods were going to strike them down at once.

Percy shook his head replying "See? This is exactly what I was talking about!" Percy huffed and grabbed his bag and quickly stuffed some ambrosia and nectar that he kept around and put his trusty pen Riptide in his pocket.

"Alright G-man, I am going rogue for a while so don't message me for-" Percy started to say as he was opening the door.

"What about Annabeth?" Grover asked. Percy froze and suddenly thoughts of them together flashed through his mind, the times by the lake holding hands, even just chatting together. A flash of blonde hair and striking grey eyes went through his mind. Maybe I could ask her along and we could. No, that would put her in more danger, but what if she's hurt?

Percy shook his head and with a pained expression and told him "Tell her I…" Percy closed his eyes to stop some tears and swallowed, "Tell her that I enjoyed the time we spent together, but I am going to leave and she should move on."

Percy opened the door and started walking towards the edge of camp suppressing his doubts about leaving. Percy kept walking towards the border faster and faster he was almost out.

"Percy wait!" Percy stopped at the edge. Turning around he was greeted with Annabeth with tears shining in her grey eyes. "Why are you leaving?" She questioned him desperately.

"Annabeth, I enjoyed our time together but I decided we needed a break" Percy tried to say without his voice cracking with emotion.

"No, I know you too well, this isn't you Percy, what's the real reason you're deciding to leave?" Annabeth shot back.

Percy wasn't sure whether to tell the truth or a lie, but he knew a lie wouldn't get passed her.

"Well, to tell you the truth, I am tired of all this, tired of looking on at the mistreatment of our friends! Remember Luke? He felt betrayed that his father would never pay attention to him and his mother went mad! Right now my mom is suffering at the hands of Gabe! Gabe who smells and doesn't know what to do but play poker and drink beer"

Percy stared at the sky and yelled: "And my father doesn't do anything, at least take responsibility!" Percy was out of breath at this point and breathing hard.

"Percy, what happened to you?" Annabeth whispered now openly crying. Behind her, the rest of the camp started to gather due to the water droplets that started to fall from the sky. Percy hesitated not knowing the answer himself.

Unbeknownst to the campers, Zeus was looking down at what was transpiring at the border of the camp. Zeus was debating on what to do with young Perseus Jackson, his speech was getting very anti-god like and that did not bode well at all for the future.

He could just dismiss this and let Perseus go, but what if Perseus got more powerful? Perseus was a son of one of the Big Three. Zeus then remembered what happened the last time a son of the Big Three went rogue.

Zeus inwardly shivered at the memories of a son of Hades who rallied Germany and the vast amount of blood spilled from the children of the gods. Zeus simply couldn't allow another world war to decimate the population of their children. Zeus quickly summoned Ares. "What is it?" Ares asked lazily twirling an M16. Zeus looked at him, and sighed, "I need you to get rid of Perseus". Ares' eyebrows shot up and he looked surprised. "Now why would you want me to do that?" Ares asked.

Zeus looked down and said, "Perseus has the potential to start another world war with the way he is speaking and the potential power he has". Here Zeus pointed to the Iris Message he was getting of the scene. "And I figured that out of anyone still able to do something you of all people would be itching to get back at him."

Ares nodded, "Well I suppose I would want revenge after he made an embarrassment of me before, alright I'll do it".

Zeus looked at Ares "Good make sure it is done, I need to go visit somebody." Zeus said and then flashed out.

Back at Camp, Percy looked at everyone and whispered: "The gods have neglected all of us, I just hope you all realize it before it's too late". Percy swiftly turned around and started jogging out of the borders and soon disappeared from the campers' sight.

The campers started walking back, whispering amongst themselves about the events that just transpired. During dinner, life moved on as normal although the gossip was very clearly focused on Percy's supposed abandonment of the gods and running away. BOOM!

The whole pavilion shook and campers fell out of their seats not knowing what was happening. As they were standing up they fell to their seats again as the whole earth it felt was shaking. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The campers were still unsure of what was happening, then one camper cried "The cabins!" The faces of the campers quickly turned to horror as they saw every single cabin burning with green fire. But even worse, standing in the middle of all the cabins was a single person. With unmistakable black hair and face wearing sunglasses against a backdrop of fire, each of the campers looked on in growing fear at Percy Jackson. Percy began throwing jars of Greek fire at the campers. Chaos ensued as the campers scrambled to get away from the jars and explosions rained left and right. They distinctly heard Percy laughing crazily and then a blinding flash of light forced them to look away.

Ares took off his sunglasses and shrugged off the Camp Half-Blood T-shirt he had conjured, changing his face back to its normal form. Ares smirked to himself. _Father, you simply thought I wanted to eliminate Jackson, but starting another world war is even better, this is simply the beginning._

 **AN: That was quite a long chapter for me, two updates in the same day. Hope you all enjoyed and thanks to everyone for the reviews! Once again, have a nice day!**


	3. An Olympian Meeting

Artemis quickly flashed to the gathering on Olympus. _Perseus attacked Camp Half-Blood? What would cause Perseus to do such a thing?_ Artemis sat on her throne while pondering the possibilities while looking at the gathering of gods who assembled for the meeting.

Her brother Apollo was the first to speak, "That good for nothing son of Poseidon decided to attack our kids! He deserves to be roasted by the power of the sun!"

"What are you trying to say about sons of Poseidon!" Poseidon himself yelled back at Apollo while he was standing up.

Apollo glared at Poseidon "Your son attacked Camp Half-Blood harming several campers and he clearly blames the gods for all of their problems, as if we should worry about them!"

Poseidon took his trident and was preparing to speak before he was interrupted by Zeus standing up.

"Enough!" Zeus cried while thunder roared in the background. The entire room fell silent and paid close attention to Zeus.

"As I'm sure you were all updated on, Perseus has attacked Camp Half-Blood." Zeus looked at each of the gods here. Zeus then went on to explain in detail the attack and the growing horror and anger present on each of the gods' face increased.

"Perseus Jackson must be brought to justice, but he must first be found. Poseidon, any idea of Perseus' location at the moment?" Zeus aksed.

Poseidon still had an expression of disbelief that his son was being implicated or at the possibility that his son would do such a thing.

"No, he is not near any water source at the moment, so I do not know where my son is" Poseidon answered through clenched teeth.

"How do we even know my son did it in the first place?!" Poseidon questioned the whole room.

"There was no trial for him, where is the justice in this!" Poseidon continued in his defense of his only demigod son.

Ares then stood up from his throne. "All of the campers confirmed it was Jackson and even Jackson's best friend Annabeth testified that it was indeed him who attacked the camp, enough said", Ares finished talking and sat back down with a smirk on his face.

Athena then stepped off her throne, "I am the goddess of wisdom Poseidon, not you, so therefore I can say that the overwhelming testimonies and eyewitness accounts here point to Perseus Jackson being the culprit. Perseus himself indicated in his little speech that us gods were at fault. As if!" Athena huffed while giving off an aura of sheer certainty that swayed over many of the gods who were unsure about Percy's guilt.

"So Poseidon, it seems all of your children really did inherit your tiny brain after all!" Athena shot Poseidon a smirk.

Poseidon fumed while radiating off an aura of pure anger causing the floor to shake before taking a deep breath and shooting Athena a pure look of contempt.

Hermes sat watching the whole argument with a melancholy look remembering his lost son Luke who also felt neglected. _If only I had paid more attention to him, these Ancient Laws only served as excuses to not visit our children. What kind of gods are we if we cannot even care for our children properly?_

Artemis herself kept silent on the matter while still in deep thought. _It seems likely that Perseus is responsible for the attack_ _, but he saved me and took the sky under his burden, if he thought the gods were that terrible he wouldn't have done that right?_

Another part of her mind told her: _You're growing soft on a male Artemis, what happened to being the goddess of chastity and swearing off the company of men forever? You talk about how terrible all males are and yet here you are thinking about the possibility of a male being innocent! Do you want Percy to hold you and -_

Artemis shut down her confusing thoughts on the son of Poseidon and focused back on what was transpiring on the meeting.

"Fine Poseidon if you insist on justice, we will have a vote, raise your hand if Perseus is guilty and should be brought to justice." Zeus intoned with authority.

Artemis wasn't sure what to do. On the one hand, a part of her still believed Perseus to be innocent but another part also thought he was guilty.

Although on the outside her face was a mask of calm, her thoughts were a mess and an inner conflict was taking place. _I should be voting guilty, but why aren't I?_ The question echoed in her head. The great Artemis sat there on her throne debating, but by the time she refocused back on the meeting, the vote had already taken place.

9 hands rose in the affirmative. They were Ares, Zeus, Demeter, Apollo, Dionysus, Aphrodite, Hera, Hephaestus, Athena.

"All opposed?" Zeus asked.

Only Poseidon and Hermes raised their hands opposed to Percy being declared an enemy of Olympus.

Zeus looked at Hermes with a questioning look, "I can understand why Poseidon would vote no, but why would you Hermes?"

"I believe that Perseus would not commit such an act of violence against his own friends, his fatal flaw after all, is personal loyalty" Hermes answered confidently, and then sat down.

Poseidon looked at Hermes with a look full of surprise mixed in with appreciation and then gave Hermes a brief nod. Hermes nodded back and then leaned back in his seat.

Zeus looked around at the assembled gods and declared "Let it be known that Perseus Jackson, Son of Poseidon, is to be hunted and brought to Olympus to await justice!"

Zeus then turned to Artemis and said to her "Daughter, I need you and your hunters to find Perseus Jackson and bring him to justice."

Artemis stood with uncertainty still in the back of her mind, but replied "Very well, I will do as you asked Father." _As long as Perseus is considered an enemy, I should treat him as such._ _You should?_ Artemis once again shut those thoughts down.

"Good, I expect to hear news of Perseus' capture soon" Zeus said and concluded the meeting. All of the gods and goddesses flashed out except Poseidon and Artemis.

Artemis got up to leave but was stopped by Poseidon. "Artemis, the other gods may not have noticed that you abstained from voting, but I did, can I ask why?" Poseidon asked her directly.

Artemis debated on what to tell him, but eventually settled on "Perseus is one of the only decent males out there, but if he is guilty I will make him feel pain like he has never known for harming the Camp and burning down my cabin" Artemis stated with conviction.

Poseidon knew that this was to be expected but asked her one last question, "I may not have been the best father to him all these years, but I still do care for him a lot. All I ask is that you give him a chance and to consider the possibility that Percy is innocent."

Artemis looked at Poseidon for a moment, studying him before offering him a small nod and flashing out.

Poseidon looked at the ground in contemplation before also flashing out.

 _Percy, I hope you're safe._

 **AN: Hope you all enjoyed the meeting, once again thank you all for the encouraging review, they mean a lot! Thanks for reading and have a nice day!**


	4. On the Run

Chapter 4:

Percy needed to get away, get away from his friends, get away from Camp, get away from it _all_.

He was running and running, not noticing the growing pain in his legs from muscle cramps.

All Percy knew was he had to keep going for whatever reason. Percy thought that getting away from camp would be a good change in his life.

Boy, how wrong he was. Ever since the confrontation with Annabeth, Grover, and the rest of the campers Percy had been feeling very downcast. Saying that the gods were at fault for all of their problems probably did not help the situation at all.

In fact, if he had to bet, Percy was almost certain that the gods were watching him rant about them. Why wouldn't they? He was the _Savior of Olympus_. There's one thing they don't tell you, about being a hero, its that being a hero comes with a certain set of expectations and that you _have_ to accomplish. Like going on this quest or going to save this person or retrieve that item.

Percy imagined if he were Zeus he would probably have smited himself down for the way he was disrespecting and disparaging the gods. Yet, they didn't smite him down so there must be another motive or another.

Percy checked his surroundings and slowed his sprint to a slow jog. He was currently in a forest with a small stream running nearby. Percy stopped jogging and sat by the banks of the small stream running through the forest.

Further downstream Percy saw a deer gently grazing with a doe nearby.

With the sound of the running water nearby and the sounds of the forest and wildlife around him, Percy felt oddly at peace with himself and the environment.

Percy checked his bag and found the small bag of drachmas, ambrosia, nectar, and an iPod with earplugs. Percy decided to sit cross legged and meditated for a while just listening to the ambience of the woods and stream.

Percy had actually tried meditating before at camp and found it ridiculous at first. Yet now he just felt at peace with himself and his surroundings.

After a few minutes Percy started honing on his demigod powers by beginning to levitate a small amount of water in front of him. Percy reached out in his mind and started manipulating the water to form different shapes, first a rough shape of a bird, then a house, a car.

Percy repeated these transformations then dropped the water back into the stream letting out a deep breath and wiping some sweat off his forehead.

Percy then continued to meditate in this position for about another 30 minutes before he felt something in the environment shift. Percy wasn't sure what had changed so he tried to focus.

Then Percy knew what had changed, the birds. The birds had stopped chirping and chortling away their lively, familiar tunes. The forest's previous atmosphere had changed from something warm and inviting into something more sinister.

Percy opened his eyes and felt his trusty pen in his pocket and slowly stood up from his seated position and arranged himself into a crouch unsure of what was happening.

Percy then heard something crunching underfoot, leaves were rustling and then a high pitched voice said "Where issssss the demigod sssson of the sssea?"

Percy had a fair idea that this was an empousa having faced some before and recognizing their type of voice.

Percy was preparing to jump out and run his sword through the monster before she had a chance to realize what was going on but froze when another voice answered

"I do not know sssssister, I sssssmelled him over here but the scent of the ssstream has made it difficult to find him"

"He mussst be around here ssssomewhere, maybe if we catch him we can bring him back to Zeus and get a reward?" The other empousa hissed back.

Percy was now very alarmed. _Why would the empousa be working with Zeus of all people? Was my short conversation with the camp that bad?_ Percy now needed to get information from the empousa so he hid until one of them appeared in his line of sight and had their back to him.

Percy pulled out his pen and uncapped it causing a faint rippling sound to go through the air. The empousa tried to turn around but Percy's sword flashed and ran through it causing it to disintegrate into dust.

Percy then turned to the remaining empousa who tried to charge him but ended up missing.

Percy cut the arm off of the empousa causing it to shriek and charge at him. Percy squarely landed an uppercut causing the empousa to be knocked back and onto the ground.

Percy then decided to interrogate the empousa by stepping over it and looking right into its eyes.

"What did you mean when you said you could get a reward for bringing me to Zeus" Percy demanded.

"I don't have to tell you a thing!" the empousa hissed back and tried to spit in his face but Percy turned his face to the side.

"You are going to tell me now" Percy said projecting some power into his voice and making the ground shake around them.

The empousa appeared to have been cowed as it answered hesitantly "What…what do you want to know?"

Percy answered quietly but nonetheless menacingly to the empousa "I want to know why you said that you would get a reward from Zeus for bringing me to him."

The empousa stared at Percy incredulously "You mean you didn't think your attack would have any consssequencessss?"

Percy was extremely confused "What do you mean?" he asked.

"When you burned down all the cabinssss at Camp Half Blood, you created quite the stir. It made you quite popular with a lot of monsters" The empousa practically purred at Percy.

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Percy replied with a very shocked and confused look on his face.

"I sssssee what you're trying to do, acting like you are innocent when you are actually guilty, I _like_ it!" the empousa winked at him.

Percy finally understood that the empousa was _flirting_ with him. Percy looked at the empousa who was giving him a _look_ that he did not like one bit.

"Alright nope, not happening" Percy said quickly and then stabbed the empousa ending the awkward situation.

Percy decided the best course of action was to just pretend that the whole situation never happened and quickly exited the forest.

 _So, Zeus wants to have me captured because I supposedly attacked Camp Half Blood? Aren't any of the gods doing anything about this?_

 _Unless they have already condemned me without even bothering to thoroughly investigated. One day a hero and another day a villain._

Percy continued walking until a sudden flash of light caused him to shield his eyes. When the light faded he saw it was Hermes.

Percy immediately drew Riptide and looked at Hermes and asked him "What do you want?" suspiciously.

"Peace Perseus, I am here to help." Hermes said while offering his hands in a placating matter.

"How can I trust you?" Percy asked him still a little suspicious.

"Look if I wanted to capture you I would have already tried to fight you" Hermes reassured Percy still with his hand in front of him outstretched.

"Fine, what did you want to tell me?" Percy asked while lowering his sword slightly.

"I am here to let you know that Olympus is now on the hunt for you due to the fact that most of them believe you attacked Camp Half Blood" Hermes explained.

"I already suspected this, Zeus always was paranoid" Perseus replied while finally sheathing his sword.

Hermes' eyebrows raised in a question of how he knew this information already. After all, no one else he was aware of had made contact with Percy.

"Ran into some empousa, don't want to talk about it." Percy answered ambiguously.

"Well if you want to know, there _was_ a vote in order to decide whether you were guilty or not. Basically everyone voted against you except Poseidon, me, and Artemis. Your father and I voted for you to be innocent while Artemis didn't vote for or against you which is surprising" Hermes explained quickly to Percy.

"Your father and I are on your side Perseus, don't hesitate to call us anytime you need. I don't know about Artemis though" Hermes told Percy quietly.

"Goodluck Percy" Hermes gave Percy a nod and then flashed out.

Percy was still reeling from all this new information given to him. _Thanks for watching out for me Dad, even if you weren't there as much as I wanted._

Back in Atlantis, Poseidon heard Percy's message and smiled. A small tear escaped his eyes, as he replied: _I'll always care for you son even if you don't realize it. Always._

 **AN: Another chapter is in. I will probably take a brief break after writing this much but thank you once again to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed. I hope you all have a nice day!**


	5. The Hunt Continues

**AN: Here is the next installation after a long wait! Leave a review if you are enjoying the story, they are the fuel to my writing engine :)**

Artemis appeared in the Hunters' camps and nodded satisfied at the work the Hunters had accomplished while she was at the meeting. They were almost finished packing up their supplies and dismantling the tents. Thalia approached Artemis with an anxious look on her face.

"Well? Was it just a misunderstanding, did Percy really attack Camp Half-Blood?" asked Thalia, but Artemis' solemn nod only made Thalia's face morph into an expression of shock and horror.

"No, Percy would never do that! Not the Percy I kn-" Thalia was interrupted by Artemis raising an eyebrow and motioning for her to follow. Artemis asked Thalia to summon the Hunters for a mission briefing in the center of the Camp.

"Hunters, I am sure you are aware now that Perseus Jackson has attacked Camp Half-Blood" Artemis began, and many of the hunters nodded at that statement and some began murmuring between themselves. Artemis motioned for silence, and the hunters quieted down.

"We have been given orders to track and hunt down Perseus and bring him back to Olympus to face justice and the gods" Artemis declared. Some of the hunters cheered and looked excited and some of them shouted insults.

"We'll get that arrogant good for nothing male in chains in no time!" yelled one of the hunters.

Artemis' silver eyes turned to molten as she stared at one of the hunters but Thalia spoke up before she could "In case you didn't remember, he saved our Lady's life and he is a better _person_ than you could ever be!"

The hunter glared at Thalia but remained silent. Many of the hunters now started to silently take sides on who to agree with. The tension in the camp was able to be cut with a knife. Artemis dismissed the hunters and she decided to go to her tent to make preparations.

Artemis invited Thalia, and Phoebe, the one other hunter who had criticized Perseus, to her tent where a map of the continental United States was unfolded and several positions were marked as to most likely whereabouts of Perseus' location.

"As you can see, I have marked the most likely locations of where Perseus could be located based on the amount of time that has elapsed since the attack," Artemis explained.

Both of her hunters nodded their heads and they continued making preparations for capturing Percy.

All of a sudden, Apollo flashed in the middle of them causing Thalia and Phoebe to pin him down before he could say a word.

Apollo looked up at Artemis who was raising an eyebrow in a questioning manner, Apollo said "Hey sis, not the welcome I expected but I have some information on Perseus" Artemis motioned for the hunters to get off of her brother and she helped lift him up. Artemis then motioned for him to continue.

Apollo explained that he spotted Perseus from his chariot in a forest not too far from the camp. Artemis' eyes widened and she thanked her brother by nodding. Apollo then flashed away probably to tend to the sun again.

Artemis summoned her hunters and explained the situation to them.

"Now, remember, we are supposed to bring him back ALIVE, so you should shoot to disarm and NOT to kill, are we clear?" Her hunters nodded back although some had disgruntled faces probably wanting to kill Percy.

Artemis thought to herself this should be a relatively easy and routine hunt. Just capture Percy, _Perseus_ and then bring him back to Olympus. _But what if he isn't guilty?_ But Artemis quickly shook those thoughts out of her head, she had a job to do.

* * *

Percy was having a grand old time. He had actually went back into Manhattan after the encounter with Hermes in the forest. After all, they wouldn't expect him to be back in the city of his enemy. _Enemy_ , _when did I think of the gods as my enemy? I suppose they are considering they basically issued an arrest warrant for me on false charges. How can they even trace me? Although, Apollo and his chariot would probably be able to spot me but as long as there are clouds blocking the sun I should be ok._

At this thought, Percy looked up and to his relief the sun was still obscured by clouds. _Alright Perseus, let's go get a nice drink._ Percy walked into a nearby cafe and ordered a simple plain coffee because $8.75 for a frappuccino was _not_ worth it.

Afterwards Percy decided to visit his mom who was _still_ with Gabe. Percy walked up to his mom's apartment and knocked on the door.

He waited a bit, and waited some more, Percy was beginning to feel anxious and a little nervous but then Gabe opened the door. It took a few moments but the smell hit Percy like a truck, it smelled like used socks that were out in the the sun for too long and Percy gagged.

Gabe looked down at Percy with a scowl on his face "What do you want boy?"

Percy looked back at Gabe and calmly answered "To see my _mom_ Gabe I'm in a hurry so get out of my way"

Percy made to step through the door but Gabe blocked him from entering. Narrowing his eyes Gabe angrily yelled "Who do you think you are? Walking in here and ordering me around, boy I can still beat you into the ground!"

Percy's eyes flashed murderously and he pulled out Riptide uncapping it and holding the point of it under Gabe's chin. Gabe took a nervous gulp and stood still.

"Now you're going to let me in and I am going to ask you to get out of here while you still can" Percy calmly said. Gabe stood there with Percy's eyes boring into his and nodded while shaking in fear.

"Alright fine, just just get that thing away from me, let me just pack a few of my…" Gabe started but was interrupted by Percy putting more pressure on the sword and increasing his power to envelop Gabe. At that point, Gabe was practically quaking in terror and ran away.

Percy watched him go with a cold look but quickly rushed inside the apartment. He almost couldn't recognize the apartment that he once stayed in. The whole place was almost completely trashed.

There were piles of dirty dishes in the sink, the floors had bits of food and the carpet had dark stains from beer. And the beer, there were bottles lying everywhere you looked and a pile of poker cards sat on the table neatly stacked.

"Mom!" Percy yelled, and he heard some footsteps coming from a bedroom.

His mom came out and was she looked very haggard and stressed out but upon seeing her son her face brightened up and she ran towards Percy with her arms outstretched.

Percy opened up his arms and they embraced holding each other for a moment. Then Percy's mom, Sally Jackson stepped back and observed her son. One of the first things she noticed was that he had grown a lot. Her baby boy was a boy no longer.

He now stood almost a head taller than her and his eyes seemed to hold a lot more knowledge and understanding of the world around him.

Sally Jackson quickly took the card deck off of the table and quickly grabbed some snacks from the pantry and gave some to Percy who took it with gratitude and they sat down.

"So Percy, tell me what has been going on with this Camp Half-Blood Business?" Sally questioned.

Percy looked surprised "You know about that?"

"Of course I know about it, you didn't think I still don't have connections to the divine world do you?" Percy's mom asked.

Percy's widening eyes only made her burst out laughing and Percy only looked very confused. Finally his mom quieted down and told him how his father, Poseidon, had come and explained the situation to her and how his father told her that he believed Percy was innocent and that someone was trying to frame him.

When Percy questioned what those other things were his mom only grinned and told him to leave that for the adults.

Percy and his mom spent some more time talking with each other and catching up. Percy noticed the sun starting to dip below the horizon and he reluctantly told his mom that he had to go as this was probably one of the places they would search.

"Also, before I leave, Gabe isn't coming back, I told him to leave and never come back, why did you keep him around anyway?" Percy questioned.

"I kept him here because I knew that his smell would block out your scent Percy" his mother quietly said.

At that moment Percy felt extremely lucky to have such a loving and caring mom who would sacrifice so much for his safety and he hugged his mother with some tears forming in his eyes.

He and his mother said their goodbyes and Percy left the apartment, by now the sun was down and he found a small forest with a creek running by to set up camp.

Percy took his backpack off and set a sleeping bag on the ground next to him and drifted off to sleep.

When Percy woke the next morning, birds were chirping, the sun was shining on his face, the trees were swaying. _Wait, the sun was shining_. Percy quickly stood up and splashed some water on his face to become more alert and took out Riptide.

No doubt the gods had sent someone to hunt him down. Probably the Hunters of Artemis…

As Percy thought this he saw a burst of silver cloaks come from multiple sides of the forest and his eyes widened but soon he held Riptide with firm resolve. He was going to face down these hunters and show them that he was a force to be reckoned with.

 **AN: Hope you guys enjoyed leave some reviews for suggestions and what you like or dislike about this story. Have a nice day!**


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